Everything You Need to Know About Booking Software

How’s your appointment calendar looking? Chances are you have time for a few more customers.

A full calendar means business is booming. But how can you do this? An excellent way to fill up your empty time slots is by taking advantage of booking software.

Without a booking software, you will have to rely on phone calls and walk-ins to make appointments, which is risky considering 70 percent of customers prefer to book online. Give your customers what they want and reap the benefits of booking software.

What is an Online Booking Software?

A booking software allows potential customers to reserve and pay for a service online through your website or social networks, on any smart device. The beauty of online booking software is that regardless of where your customers are, they can access your online booking service at any time.

Online booking software facilitates online customer appointment reservations. It eliminates the need for manual booking through phone calls or emails, which ends up wasting a lot of time for you, your employees, and your customer on the other end. The majority of online scheduling tools can be added directly to your website to make for a quick and easy booking process. 

An online booking tool usually requires minimal information such as your name, phone number, email address, and a time slot. Some booking tools enable payment processing to be integrated into your booking system. Which means you have the option to require your customer to input their billing information to put a down payment for the service or to reserve the spot (and they will get charged a fee if they are a no show). 

What Can Booking Software Do For You?

Aside from streamlining the booking process, an online scheduling tool provides many additional benefits to your business. Here are few.

24/7 Booking Capabilities

An online scheduling tool creates 24/7 booking. Meaning, customers don’t have to wait for business hours to make an appointment. With 40 percent of online bookings being done after hours, it's imperative that you have this option.

Enable customers to access your work calendar, which is constantly updated to reflect your availability in real-time. This makes it easy for customers to schedule appointments right on your website, without the need for waiting, calls, or back and forth emails. It simplifies the entire booking process by providing a self-service online schedule tool and optimizing everyone's time.

Some booking software comes with built-in features, which can also allow customers to reschedule or cancel appointments with just a few clicks. This can all be done by adding minimal (if any) additional expenses to the operational budget.

Improve Your Customer Service

How do you feel about being put on hold waiting to speak to a live representative? About 56% of consumers are frustrated with waiting on hold and the inconvenient office hours related to scheduling appointments by phone. You don’t like having to wait and neither do your customers. 

Booking software allows you to reduce unnecessary phone calls regarding bookings and enables you and your employees to spend more time assisting customers or potential customers who require your attention. An online scheduling tool improves customer experience, leading to happier customers and more repeat business. In other words, you can provide better customer service and an overall better experience. 

Efficiency 

More than anything, booking software improves efficiency. It can send automated reminders, alerts, either via phone call, email, or automated SMS text messages leading up to the appointment. It saves you time through automated booking management and communications. 

This doesn’t only remind customers of the upcoming booking, but it also reduces no-show rates. For those who forgot about the appointment, they get a reminder and for those who wish to cancel, it’s an easy process to reschedule or completely cancel the booking in just a few clicks. Booking software can increase revenue through more new bookings and reduced no-shows.

Complete Mobility 

Roughly 76 percent of customers schedule appointments through mobile devices — and that number is projected to grow. And that's because being able to schedule an appointment on the go is advantageous. The truth is, we all love convenience, and booking appointments is no exception.

Booking software is cloud-based, which means it can be accessed anywhere. In theory, you should be able to manage, schedule, and oversee bookings from your mobile device. It also provides a new level of convenience for your customers who can schedule an appointment from their mobile device from virtually anywhere, without ever having to hop on a call or go to your physical brick-and-mortar location.

Get More Bookings

An automated booking software like GoSite's will help you attract more customers. You have the option to embed your complete online booking system directly on your website for easy access. By making the online booking process quick and effortless, more new and existing customers will opt in to schedule an available time slot. This will lead to more bookings and more money in your pocket at the end of the day.

Grow Your Business With Booking Software

When deciding on booking software for your business, you should look for a complete online booking system that is fully customizable to fit around your business, service, and processes, like GoSite’s Booking tool. With the online scheduling tool, you can add an online booking system (with 1-click) to your website, Google, Facebook, popular mobile apps, and more. 

It’s time to take control of your appointment calendar with an online scheduling tool. GoSite's Booking software has the power to make things a whole lot easier for both you and your customers. What are you waiting for? Provide a convenient online booking system for customers and increase your revenue by getting more bookings than ever before.